SINGAPORE — Unhappy that he was fired after making death threats towards a colleague, a 24-year-old sent several voice messages threatening to harm, and even kill, his supervisor and colleague.

Mustaqim Zakaria was sentenced to four months' jail on Monday (April 15) after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal intimidation.

Two similar charges and one charge for refusing to give a DNA sample to a police officer were taken into consideration in sentencing.

His sentence was backdated to Feb 7 as he has been in remand since his arrest.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Andre Chong told the court on Monday that Mustaqim has mild intellectual disability and anti-social personality disorder, but a psychiatrist found that these had no contributory links to his offence.

During the court proceedings, Mustaqim threatened to "bomb Singapore", among other things in his mitigation plea. 

This spurred District Judge Carol Ling to warn Mustaqim that his behaviour was "not allowed".

WHAT HAPPENED

Mustaqim was working as a porter at the National University Hospital (NUH) from June 2023 to January 2024.

Sometime in December last year, he got the phone number of a 30-year-old Malaysian woman who worked as a housekeeper at NUH and would frequently sent text messages to her.

He would ask to meet her and ask for her whereabouts. However, the woman did not reply because she felt uncomfortable.

She eventually blocked his phone number when he would not stop messaging her.

Unhappy with that, Mustaqim told his supervisor — a 32-year-old Malaysian man — that he wanted to slap and kill the female colleague.

The supervisor informed his boss and was instructed to retrieve Mustaqim's access card on Jan 31 this year.

When Mustaqim was asked to hand over his access card, he threw it on the ground and left the hospital.

On Feb 1 at about 9.20pm, Mustaqim sent the supervisor a WhatsApp voice message in Malay saying: "I'd rather get the death sentence, I shoot you".

He then sent another voice message, saying that the female colleague who had blocked him would "die in my hands".

THREATS DURING MITIGATION

DPP Chong sought a sentence of four to five months' jail, noting that this was not the first time Mustaqim had made death threats.

In March 2022, Mustaqim was jailed for 21 weeks after threatening to kill people during a call with his case officer at the Institute of Mental Health.

This sparked an islandwide hunt and he was found holding a chopper at a public park in Woodlands.

A psychiatrist had also said that Mustaqim had "repeatedly and intentionally chosen to behave in an anti-social manner despite being aware of the unlawfulness of his actions, displaying no remorse".

During his mitigation plea, Mustaqim threatened to "bomb Singapore", and that it was "unfair" that he was facing legal punishment. He also threatened to "take revenge on the DPP".

In response, District Judge Ling said: "While you may have mild intellectual disorder and anti-social personality disorder, it does not mean such behaviour is allowed."

TODAY has asked the Attorney-General's Chambers if any action would be taken against Mustaqim following his threats during mitigation.

For criminal intimidation, he could have been jailed up to 10 years or fined, or both.